Syl’s muscles screamed, and so did she, as she pulled up on the blade.

  Edar’s eyes finally left the Anihazi and shifted to the blur of his oncoming death.

  But Syl’s foot slipped on the dusty floor, and suddenly everything was out of her control.

  “Edar!” somebody shouted as the tip of Syl’s Sho-Val thudded into something. The razor edge scarred the wooden wall, Edar toppled lifelessly sideways, and the arc of Syl’s blade soared off course over the Anihazi.

  Oh, Ancestors! What have I done?

  Syl’s momentum carried her line of sight past Edar and she was left facing the Anihazi. But the drums had outpaced her and Syl’s mind was too filled with concern over her fallen friend to catch up.

  Sensing her weakness, the Anihazi attacked, and Syl had no choice but to simply fall back. There was no form or grace to her stumbling retreat and she once again found her back to the wall in short order. The Anihazi raised a claw for the killing strike, so confident Syl could taste it on the air.

  She fumbled for the beat, for her place in the En Da, and just barely found it as the Anihazi’s claw swooped across at chest height.

  The En Da demanded she parry the powerful stroke by planting her spear tip in the ground and using the weapon as a vertical shield. She drove the point down into the wood and prepared to brace the spear, all in a fraction of a second, but a primal scream in the back of her mind told her something was wrong. Very wrong.

  The spear won’t stop it! It’s made of clouds!

  The drums vanished like a puff of smoke and Syl did the only thing her panicked brain would let her. She dropped straight down for a second time. It had saved her before, and it saved her again.

  The Anihazi’s arm rolled around the spear like a thick fog, not slowed in the least, while the terrible claws shredded the walls like paper.

  Her Sho-Val forgotten, and apparently useless, Syl scuttled out of the way before the Anihazi could strike again. But it didn’t seem to be in any hurry.

  Every eye in the room, the Anihazi’s included, watched as the spear toppled to the ground. The Anihazi tentatively prodded the weapon with a single claw, and when nothing happened, it turned those lightning eyes back on Syl, triumph fiercely flickering in them.

  It roared again, its thunderous voice reverberating off the walls.

  Syl managed to find her feet on shaky legs. Her eyes darted to the outside world through the scars in the wall. Her spear hadn’t slowed the attack in the least.

  If I didn’t duck at the last minute…

  The Sho-Val couldn’t stop it. It couldn’t hurt it.

  Worse, the Anihazi knew it.

  It stalked forward, eyes locked with Syl’s. Its hate was suffocating. Its thirst for revenge was all-consuming. There was no escape.

  She watched in morbid fascination as it raised its paw, claws like curved daggers and surprisingly vivid despite being made of nothing more than clouds. The sun played off its surface, reflecting and refracting with every rippling movement to create a myriad of colours. It was beautiful, in a way.

  Beautiful, if it wasn’t about to kill her.

  The Anihazi lifted itself up and the shadow of its claw fell over Syl. The drums had left her. Her mind was empty, her body useless. She wouldn’t dodge the next attack.

  Regret at failing to find her father, at failing to protect her friends, hit her like being dunked in ice water. It squeezed her chest like a vice but she didn’t have long to dwell on it before something slammed into her side. She watched the claw come down, quick as lightning, as she fell.

  No, that doesn’t make sense. Shouldn’t the claw have come before I got hit?

  Syl looked around, confused, to find herself on the floor again. Just like before, the wall where she’d been standing was torn asunder.

  How much more can the building take? she idly wondered, and a dangerous creaking answered her.

  “Are you okay Syl?” Leeze asked from on top of her.

  “Leeze?” Syl asked, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice.

  “Good. Take care of this for me,” Leeze said and handed Syl her carved-bone pendant, the leather strap broken. Then the girl smiled and stood to face the Anihazi. “En Da was it?” she asked, taking the ready pose without waiting for an answer.

  “Leeze, you can’t…” Syl started, but Leeze wasn’t listening. Was she too focused on the Anihazi? Was she enthralled by the drums?

  The Anihazi hesitated. Leeze wasn’t carrying a weapon, but it was Syl’s bare hands and feet that stung it. Leeze slid forward into the opening salvo of En Da and the Anihazi quickstepped back and out of reach. Leeze gave chase, the thrum filling her body as she attacked and defended. She couldn’t quite catch up to the Anihazi’s supernatural speed but neither did she get hit, each time twisting, just barely, out of the way of a slashing claw.

  But Leeze didn’t have Syl’s patience and the frustration of not being able to land a hit visibly gnawed at her brief confidence. She pushed too hard, outpacing the drums in her eagerness to make something happen. Her fists swung in wide arcs, the tight, short punches of En Da seemingly forgotten.

  The Anihazi, far too intelligent, sensed that and feigned vulnerability.

  And Leeze almost took the bait, but the steady drumming of hands on the floor pulled her up short. The Anihazi wasn’t the only one who’d sensed her sloppiness. Dena thumped her fists on the floor in time with En Da, grounding Leeze.

  As more hands joined the rhythm, Leeze refocused herself, the drumming of En Da and her friend’s support strengthening her resolve.

  The Anihazi’s eyes flicked to Syl, but Leeze didn’t give it the chance to act, racing forward with a quick combo. Her flurry of punches and kicks still didn’t score a hit, but they made sure the Anihazi’s attention was firmly on her.

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  The drumming of palms on the floor or walls grew in intensity as Leeze followed up one combo with another. She hadn’t hit it yet, but she was getting closer with every passing second. And the Anihazi knew it.

  Syl could feel its frustration building, just like Leeze’s had, but it couldn’t escape the rhythm of the En Da. The drums seemed to predict its movements and guide Leeze into openings in its defenses. It was only a matter of time until she connected.

  The Anihazi’s claw came across, intended to disembowel Leeze, but the En Da steered her into a spinning crouch that had the claw safely going over her head. As soon as her spin finished, she jumped back to evade a spearing strike by the beast’s tail and then planted her feet to counter. The Anihazi sensed her plan, and immediately lashed out at her leading leg.

  But Leeze was ready for it, the En Da was ready for it, and lifted her leg high into the air before the claw slashed nothing more than air. Worse for the Anihazi, it had over-committed itself, and Leeze’s raised foot came arcing right back down in the form of a powerful axe kick.

  The drumming climaxed as the heel of Leeze’s foot angled perfectly down at the top of the Anihazi’s head.

  Its eyes followed the leg. It couldn’t do anything else. Even its unnatural speed wouldn’t be enough to escape.

  “Yessssssssss!” Kule shouted, as sure as everybody else that the fight was over. But then Leeze’s heel passed harmlessly through the Anihazi’s ephemeral head.

  The floor cracked and broke from the force of her kick, but the Anihazi was completely unharmed. Everybody in the room froze, surprised.

  The Anihazi recovered first and Leeze didn’t have the En Da anymore.

  Thick lines of red opened on her chest as the Anihazi’s claw blurred, lightning-fast, in front of her. The crimson spray stained Kule’s face, but he barely seemed to notice. His eyes were wide and his mouth agape as he watched Leeze topple backwards.

  She hit the floor was a dull thud, no strength to cushion the fall. She coughed weakly, blood bubbling between her lips, as her head rolled towards Kule. Their eyes met for the briefest moment before the spark of life left them.

  The Anihazi, unaware or uncaring that Leeze was already dead, stood over her and raised its claw for a coup de grace.

  “No!” Syl shouted, and dropkicked the Anihazi in the side. She fully expected to pass uselessly right through it. But she couldn’t just sit by, again, and watch.

  To her surprise, and the Anihazi’s, the solid impact of her feet on its cloudy surface threw the Anihazi to the side, away from Leeze’s limp body. Syl immediately found her feet, along with the En Da, and resumed the offensive.

  The edges of the bone pendant dug into her palms as she clenched her fist, but she ignored it. No, she savoured it, the connection to her fallen friend. Leeze’s strength was her strength.

  Syl gave no quarter as she charged forward. Unrelenting. She landed blow after blow. Her punches stunned the creature. Her kicks hurt it. And the blood dripping from her right hand fueled her anger. Every time it thought to fight back, Syl’s En Da took her out of danger. She spun and leapt, ducked and rolled, but she never held back.

  One powerful kick caught the Anihazi in the jaw and sent it careening off to slam into the cracked wall. The wood held, barely, and the creature staggered a step out, dazed by the blow. Desperation rolled off it and Syl could feel it on the verge of panic.

  It couldn’t believe she was fighting back. And winning.

  Only because I caught it by surprise. Can’t let up now.

  But a surge of power in the Anihazi’s chest stopped her short. Surprised by the suddenness of it, Syl almost didn’t catch the change in the drumming of En Da in her head. Thankfully, her body knew to follow the beat and she dove to the side while her mind was still processing what it could mean.

  When the Anihazi belched out a blast of lightning that shredded what little remained of the wall and careened angrily into the neighbouring bunkhouse, it suddenly made sense.

  Shaken, Syl couldn’t help but follow the afterimage of the lightning to look at the bunkhouse. The building was little more than a crater, splinters and smoking boards raining down around it.

  Such power! But, why didn’t it use that before…? Syl had to force her gaze away from the wreckage and back to the Anihazi.

  It shook its massive head like a dog shaking off water and dug its claws into what was left of the ruined floorboards.

  But it didn’t attack. Syl’s eyes widened as she understood what the lightning had taken from it. The blast, while absurdly powerful, had weakened the Anihazi. Not only could she sense its weakness, but its physical form was also visibly smaller. Where it would have been able to look her eye-to-eye before, it now only reached her shoulders.

  That didn’t make it any less dangerous, however, and Syl retook her En Da stance as the hammering drums resumed. Even without the element of surprise, she was determined to make it pay for what it did to Leeze.

  But, that lightning. Would she be able to dodge it a second time?

  As if reading her mind, the Anihazi gathered the same power in its chest. Yes, the attack had weakened it, but that only seemed to make it more resolute.

  The pendant slick with blood in her hand, Syl silently prayed to her Ancestors that she was fast enough to keep up with the drums. If the lightning hit her, she wouldn’t fare any better than the bunkhouse had.

  “DIE!” Kule screamed, surprising everybody. One quick step then he was in the air, a blue-tipped arrow clenched in white knuckles above his head.

  The Anihazi’s head snapped around at the sound. The power in its chest primed for release, and Kule midair, there was nothing he could do to avoid it.

  No! Not another one! Syl’s mind silently screamed, and she reached out towards the Anihazi. I won’t let you!

  Though she didn’t physically touch the Anihazi, their connection strengthened for just a second. Whether it was her need, her rage, or her grief, Syl’s mind was one with the Anihazi’s. The En Da hammering in her veins matched beat for beat the thrumming of power in the beast’s chest. In that one second, she held it as if between her fingers.

  And she squeezed.

  The lightning lodged in its throat as its body froze, and abject fear replaced determination. Then Kule came crashing down, arrow first.

  In what remained of the confines of the house, the impact was devastating. A bolt of lightning as wide as an oak tree erupted from where arrow struck beast. Straight up. It blew the second floor and roof clean off the house. The people didn’t fare much better.

  Kule, the closest of the group, was hurled back like a ragdoll. The compromised walls did nothing to slow his flight.

  The same concussive wave slammed into Syl, blasting the air from her lungs in a whoosh. The force of it threatened to break her and she couldn’t do anything but fly helplessly through the air.

  She bounced and rolled more times than she could count before skidding to a halt on the dry ground. With splinters and small timbers still raining down all around, and her aching body complaining with every small movement, Syl somehow struggled to her hands and knees.

  Nothing feels broken. Badly.

  Her medical mind pushed its way to the forefront as she quickly, but methodically, inventoried her injuries.

  Shoulder was twisted, but not dislocated, numbing her fingers. Numerous scrapes and bruises dotted her body and she could feel warm wetness on her forehead. A quick touch and her fingers came away red.

  Vision isn’t blurry, thoughts are clear. No concussion. Just a scratch. I’ll survive. Need to check on the others.

  Then there was the gash in her hand, but relief outweighed the pain when she realized she still had a firm grip on Leeze’s pendant.

  Leeze! No, she’s already dead. Syl shook her head once, sadly, for her fallen friend.

  A groan from her left turned her attention to a small pile of wood and a single leg protruding from underneath it. The wreckage was barely more than kindling, and she crawled over to clear it aside. Kule was below, dirty and dazed, thin streaks of red running through the grime, but alive.

  The way he was cradling his hands though…

  Those are bad burns, Syl assessed. They need to be cleaned and wrapped right away. He might even regain full use of his fingers if I…

  The sound of shifting debris interrupted her thoughts and she turned to watch the Anihazi step out of the Teb’s destroyed house. Actually, it barely resembled a house at all, with only a single smoking wall left standing. The rest of the building had toppled to the side where it rested in a broken pile.

  Lightning-eyes met hers, and the rumbling growl drowned out the crackling fire spreading behind it. Like the sunlight before, the flickering flames danced beautifully across the cloudy surface of the beast, and she wished, briefly, that it hadn’t come to this.

  Then she caught a glimpse of Leeze’s lifeless eyes as the flames licked her motionless body, and all thoughts of the Anihazi being anything but a monster fled her mind. Syl didn’t have the strength to fight it and win, but the drums were pounding through her veins again. She’d never been able to deny the drums and her sore body moved of its own accord into the ready stance of En Da.

  “Come on, then,” she said again, her voice stronger than she thought possible. “Let’s end this.”

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